Franchise: Madden

As a longrunning series with entries on various platforms, the Madden series includes both some of the earliest and latest releases for several consoles in North America. Madden NFL 2001 was a launch title for the PlayStation 2, Madden NFL 2002 was a launch title for the GameCube and Xbox, Madden NFL 2005 was a launch title for the Nintendo DS, Madden NFL 06 was a launch title for the Xbox 360, Madden NFL 07 was a launch title for the PlayStation 3 and Wii, Madden NFL 13 was a launch title for the Wii U, Madden NFL 25 was a launch title for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and a non-numbered entry was a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS.

Conversely, Madden NFL 08 was the final GameCube title and Madden NFL 09 the final Xbox title released in North America.

The songs used in the Madden series are generally heavily censored, with notable examples being the word "gangster" in Pitbull's "Fuego" being censored in Madden NFL 08, and the words "God" and "crime" being censored in Kevin Rudolf's song "Let it Rock" in Madden NFL 11.

Despite this, EA Sports did not censor the word "erection" in B.O.B's song "Created Monster", which was featured in Madden NFL 10.

The Madden curse was an urban legend which claimed that athletes who appeared on the box of Madden games would either under-perform or sustain an injury in the season following their game's release. After a 16-year streak of "bad luck" starting from Garrison Hearst's appearance on the box of Madden NFL 99 in 1998, the first Madden game to feature a cover athlete and not John Madden himself, the "curse" would finally be broken in 2014, when Calvin Johnson managed to have one of the best seasons in his career following his appearance on the box of Madden NFL 15. Although the streak ended, the curse would strike sporadically over the continuing years, but so far has not begun another continuing streak of bad luck. In 2010, a film adaptation of the Madden curse was announced by EA, but no news has surfaced on it since and it was presumably cancelled.